-LRB- CNN -RRB- -- Time magazine on Wednesday named Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke as its 2009 Person of the Year , calling him `` the most powerful nerd on the planet . ''

Bernanke will be featured on the cover of the magazine that hits stores Friday .

He beat out Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt , President Obama , Apple CEO Steve Jobs and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi among other finalists .

Time said Bernanke was the reason the U.S. financial crisis was n't worse .

`` The story of the year was a weak economy that could have been much , much weaker . Thank the man who runs the Federal Reserve , our mild-mannered economic overlord , '' the article said .

`` He did n't just reshape U.S. monetary policy ; he led an effort to save the world economy . ''

Time : Person of the Year 2009

Bernanke is considered a scholar of the Great Depression . A series of his writings were compiled into the book `` Essays of the Great Depression . ''

Michael Grunwald , who authored Time 's article , on Wednesday told NBC 's `` Today '' that `` basically -LSB- Bernanke -RSB- saw what looked like another depression coming , and he decided he would do whatever it takes to forestall that . And basically , I think he did . It could have been a lot worse . ''

Grunwald said , `` There are things that he could have done better . One of his responsibilities is for full employment in society , and he has n't really stepped up on that , but basically in terms of influencing how the economy went this year , Bernanke was the guy . ''

The Time senior correspondent added , `` Look , he 's been criticized from left and right , from liberals and conservatives , you know , for ... running the unelected fourth branch of government . He 's a controversial figure . ''

Wednesday 's announcement comes a day before a Senate Banking Committee vote on whether Bernanke should be given another term .

`` Remember , he 's a Republican appointed by a Democratic president . It 's the Democrats on the committee that are going to vote to confirm . It 's a really interesting combination of factors , '' Grunwald said .

One of Bernanke 's harshest critics is Sen. Jim Bunning , R-Kentucky , the only senator to vote against the economist 's appointment four years ago by President Bush .

In a statement Wednesday , Bunning said , `` I find it ironic that a man who has spent the last year rewarding others for failure is now being named ` Person of the Year . '

`` But if Time magazine is in the business of rewarding failure , Ben Bernanke is their man -- he has certainly excelled at that . ''

Bunning called Bernanke a `` moral hazard , '' accusing him of supporting the `` easy money policies of his predecessor , Alan Greenspan , '' who made the cover of Time in February 1999 , along with then-Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin and his successor , Lawrence H. Summers .

Another sharp critic of Bernanke , independent Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont , said December 2 that he plans to place a `` hold '' on Bernanke 's nomination for a second term once it leaves the Banking Committee .

A `` hold '' is an informal practice in which a senator informs the majority leader that he or she does not want a bill or nomination to reach the floor for a vote .

Majority leader Sen. Harry Reid , D-Nevada , would not need to act on Sanders ' request , but Sanders could launch a filibuster to delay the motion to nominate the Fed chairman for another four-year term .

`` The American people overwhelmingly voted last year for a change in our national priorities to put the interests of ordinary people ahead of the greed of Wall Street and the wealthy few , '' Sanders said then , explaining his action .

`` What the American people did not bargain for was another four years for one of the key architects of the Bush economy . ''

Time magazine noted that Bernanke , who turned 56 Sunday , defies the stereotype of `` a typical Beltway power broker . ''

`` He does n't have a commanding presence . He is n't a mesmerizing speaker . He has none of the look-at-me swagger or listen-to-me charisma so common among men with oversize Washington offices , '' the article said .

Bernanke was sworn in as Federal Reserve chairman in February 2006 . He spent years in academia , as a professor at Princeton , Stanford and New York universities and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology , according to the Fed 's Web site .

Time magazine , like CNN , is a unit of Time Warner .

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GOP senator and critic calls Ben Bernanke `` moral hazard ''

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Time magazine calls Bernanke , 56 , '' the most powerful nerd on the planet ''

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Bernanke , a Great Depression scholar , feared new one , writer says

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Senate panel set to vote on whether Fed chairman get another term